On Aug. 11, Microsoft Corp. posted an alert on the Twitter account of its Halo franchise: The game's next installment wouldn't be ready this fall as originally planned, with its release delayed until 2021. A few years ago, that would have been devastating news for the team that makes the company's Xbox game console, which had been planning to roll out a new model in tandem with Halo Infinite. But the Xbox will arrive as scheduled in November, and Microsoft is bullish about its prospects-even though Sony Corp.'s rival PlayStation 5 will also make its debut in the coming months, with what many players say is a stronger slate of games. Central to Microsoft's optimism is a service called Game Pass, which offers a vast selection of titles for a flat monthly fee. "We're confident," says Sarah Bond, the vice president who oversees relations with game creators. "We will launch with thousands of games."
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